Overnight in this hotel was interesting for one main reason–the water pipes.

Note: This is the tenth post in this series. Go HERE to start from the beginning.

A sign explains that it’s a hotel with its own quirks, one of those being the pipes. They creak and sing and moan. There’s an explanation by the toilet that if the noise bothers you, you can turn the valve to stop the water, then turn it back on to use the toilet. I found it quite entertaining, actually. I woke up one time during the night and at first mistook the noise for people talking in the hallway. I didn’t resort to turning the water off, but I did close the bathroom door.

In the morning, I got a picture of those front stairs. They were quite a hike after the busy day yesterday, but volunteers helped me get my luggage up the last few steps. I’m grateful!

Breakfast came with a side of beautiful view. Here’s a view of the medieval town we were in for dinner last night.

When I woke up, it was raining. That was actually a beautiful sound. It meant that some water was falling on thirsty plants (no appreciable rain here for about two months), and it also meant the heat had broken. It was much cooler today.

Our first stop was at a museum in Kobariski. It was mostly about a major battle fought in this part of the country during World War I. There was a 20-minute film first, showing some scenes from the battle and describing what happened. I didn’t get it all, but I did know it was between the Italians and the Austro-Hungarian/German coalition on the other side. The conditions and battles were just horrific. Hard to believe anyone thinks carnage and suffering like this is worth it.

In the museum were panels describing how animals fit into the whole effort: horses and mules for moving munitions and supplies, dogs for comfort. Here are the ones about mules.

The rest of the museum was pretty standard fare remnants of the war. Well done and local to the area, but not something I particularly want to memorialize, so we’ll move on.

It was still raining when we left here for our next stop, an hour away along mountain roads with lots of switchbacks, up, then down, then all around. The mountains are so high! We were speculating that’s why we don’t see many animals here, because the terrain is too steep. It’s a wonder to me how people found and populated this area.

Today’s big adventure was river rafting on the Soca river, so different from the Utah trip in July. This was 9 people in a raft with the guide at the back. The first half of the hour-and-a-half experience was relatively calm, then we had some exciting rapids. The guide said 3.5. More than we saw in Utah.

Our first task was to get suited up. This meant neoprene suits, jackets, and booties, plus a helmet and life jacket. It was fun to watch everyone stretch and pull and finally get kitted out. Aren’t we a good looking crew? (Photo courtesy of our guide Minka.)

Once we were all ready, the company transported us to the put-in spot. I didn’t have my phone, so no photos from me. The guides took pictures all along the way and I’ve shared some below. Here’s one of Jen and me, though, which I sent to our Utah River Sisters (thanks to Sally for this pic!):

The weather by this time was beautiful. It had stopped raining and pretty soon after we put in, the sun came out. It was still cool, but in our suits (I felt trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey!), we were plenty warm.

The water was as clear as anywhere I’ve seen. Reminded me of the Caribbean. But it is, of course, very cold! And it was moving fast.

We encountered several other rafts from different companies along the river, but the guides all work well together, so it was very good-natured, as were all the passengers. Or maybe I shouldn’t say passengers, because we did row. We got clear instructions from the guide about rowing together forward, backward, and resting. A couple of times we had to do oars up because we were passing through rocks that hugged the raft, and even bounced it around.

Each of the boats on the river stopped at their favorite places to provide a little excitement to the riders. Everyone got out, then they turned one boat over, with one end up on a very large rock. This made a slide. Folks climbed up the rock, then slid down into the cold, cold water. It was quite a rush, from all appearances and reports. I didn’t think I could make it up the rock, so didn’t go, but it was fun watching others do it. Living vicariously. 😉

Here are some of the pictures the guides took of our ride. Getting back into the boat after a dip in the river is never graceful, but have you ever seen such genuine smiles? There was a lot of laughter, too. At the end, the guides took a “good” picture of us, then had us dip our helmets in the water and turn them over our heads! Ha!

At the take-out, we transported the rafts up a hill, then took off all our gear for the ride back to the shop. Everything got sorted there, we got changed into our regular clothes, and, courtesy of Minka and Jodie, who opted out of the river, had a snack lunch before our next travel. Thank you, ladies!

The next bit of road was very steep, again with mega-switchbacks. We got to our hotel a little over an hour later. Then after about another hour and a half, met to walk to dinner. This was a real feast, once again. And way too much food, but delicious.

I started this blog entry before dinner and am now finishing it after. We’re meeting up at 9 AM for tomorrows adventures, so I’m off to get some alone time and some sleep.

Once more, good night from Slovenia!